Explore our wild wonders through the eyes of a bee, seeking the beauty and bounty of our wild flowering plants!

Flowering plants bring a sense of abundance and decadence to any dish, with internationally renowned forager Miles Irving as your guide, you will soon be identifying edible plants out in the wild to bring back and adorn your dinner table.

Through direct interaction with the plants out in their natural settings, we will explore the characteristics of individual plants from a multitude of plant families. Using botanical knowledge and practical skills we will endeavour to understand how and why different wild plants thrive.

Looking deeper with the use of small hand lenses (provided) we will see what others do not and delve into the micro-world of wild plants. With our wild bounty, we will explore further the culinary potential of the hyper-seasonal flowering plants we have collected in a light lunch prepared in our research kitchen.

With unique access to our entire wild stock of the season's best foraged foods, this will not only be a nutritious and tasty meal; but also an insight into the possibilities of wild food.

Course outline:

- An exploration of flower types to identify different wild plants

- Use of loops (small hand lenses) to delve deeper into plant botany

- Identifying wild edibles with the help of field guides

- In-depth look at the characters of different plant families

- A seasonal wild lunch which will highlight culinary uses for various wild plants

Foraging expert Miles Irving has been writing, speaking and teaching on the topic of wild food for over fifteen years. His book The Forager Handbook was published by Ebury Press in 2009 and is considered to be one of the 'must-haves' for budding and experienced foragers alike.

He is the founder and director of Forager Ltd, and the host of the WorldWild Podcast connecting foragers, foodies, and philosophers from around the world. His travels in the world of wild food and in search of further knowledge have taken him to the depths of the Brazilian Amazon and the outback with indigenous communities in Australia.

Miles has led foraging workshops at Kew Gardens, the MAD symposium (organised by NOMA in Denmark) and for many of the top restaurants across the country (Dinner by Heston, Hix group, Restaurant Flat Three to name a few). He has been featured in the BBC 4 Food Programme, The Telegraph, Guardian Food Monthly, The Financial Times, at the Biohacker Summit, and is regularly sought out for his wisdom on a wide range of current ecological issues pertaining to our place as humans in the wild and the emerging future of food production and supply.